I06 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



of making a clinical evaluation of the drug. This responsibility was dis- 

 charged through the NRC Committee on Chemotherapeutic and Other 

 Agents, whose Chairman was originally Dr. Perrin H. Long. When he 

 entered the Army in June 1942, he was succeeded by Dr. Chester S. Keefer, 

 who subsequently became Medical Administrative OfiBcer of CMR. The first 

 patient was treated in March 1942. By March 1943, the records of treatment 

 of a series of 200 cases had been collected, and sufficient penicillin was 

 available so that by arrangement with the Surgeon General of the Army, 

 a CMR investigator was invited to inaugurate an experimental study with 

 wounded soldiers at Bushnell General Hospital. By the spring of 1944 the 

 needs of the Army and Navy and, in part, those of our British Allies 

 could be satisfied from current production; considerable amounts became 

 available for civilian use. Until February 1943, penicillin for the clinical 

 testing program was supplied gratis to CMR by the commercial firms to a 

 value of several hundred thousand dollars. Thereafter CMR expended 

 nearly $1,900,000 in purchasing the drug for that purpose. 



At the instance of CMR the War Production Board co-operated vigor- 

 ously and effectively in the production program. In May 1943, they pro- 

 vided AA-i priorities for selected commercial firms. As a result and within 

 a year, 21 large plants costing some 20 million dollars had been erected 

 and equipped. The monthly production of penicillin, which had approxi- 

 mated 60 million units in pilot plants in May 1943, became 117,527 mil- 

 lion units in June 1944. In June 1945, it was 646,818 million units. The 

 WPB arranged monthly meetings of the penicillin producers at which in- 

 formation on production methods could be exchanged and, for purposes of 

 this exchange, the Department of Justice agreed to waive application of 

 the antitrust laws. On July 16, 1943, WPB issued allocation order M-338 

 partitioning all penicillin supplies among the Army, Navy, Public Health 

 Service and, for purposes of clinical testing, CMR. On May i, 1944, when 

 the amounts available for civilian use became greater than could be han- 

 dled by CMR, the WPB established a Civilian Penicillin Distribution Unit 

 in Chicago to allocate supplies to 1000 selected hospitals. The problem of 

 penicillin production was on its way to certain solution and the part of 

 CMR in its conquest was completed. 



Another and similar program was undertaken by CMR in an attempt 

 to synthesize penicillin. It had required eighteen months to produce enough 

 of the drug by culture methods to treat 200 patients even with the most 

 extended effort; and though production eventually overcame all difficulties, 

 there was grave doubt as to the outcome of the venture during the fall of 

 1 94 1 and the whole of 1942. If the chemical structure of the drug could 

 be accurately identified, it might be produced by synthetic means and un- 

 limited amounts become available at inconsiderable costs. Studies towards 

 this end had therefore been in progress. 



